I Hate the Cold
by zshp1411
Summary: The cure has just been announced and Magneto is ready to go to war. Pyro doesn't expect to see Rogue in line, waiting to get the cure. Chapter Two is up. Constructive criticism is welcomed and reviews are appreciated.
1. The One that Got Away

Great, it's snowing. That's just what I need right now. One more thing that will make me even more pissed off than I already am. I hate the cold, everything about it really. It symbolizes a lack of passion, a need for more clothing (and who really likes wearing layers of clothes), and to me, it is victorious; it snatched the golden trophy from my grasp. The ice cube won the girl. How poetic, huh?

Damn Bobby, he was always such a pussy. He always played by the rules; he would never ever dare to venture outside of the box, the book of guidelines Mutant High had give all of its students. I bet he never even suspected that his girlfriend and I were seeing each other behind his back. He probably thought Rogue adored him, practically worshipped him like all the other stupid girls did at that school. I would have loved it if he had caught us together.

Maybe it's destined; the bad guy only gets the leftovers. Rogue refused to leave Bobby. I tried everything I could do to convince her to let our little affair we had come out in the open. One time I almost had her. I was giving her a massage in the library one night when we were the only ones there. I had been told by several girls before that I had the hands of an angel, so I thought that I could convince her in the nicest way possible to tell Bobby what we were doing. She was so relaxed that she said yes as if she were in a stupor when I suggested it to her. I was so pleased that I gave my hands a chance to relax and then Rogue snapped out of it and changed her mind.

It pissed me off that she could never admit to Bobby that she did not find him perfect, that there was another who could satisfy her needs, who understood her. I couldn't stand watching him be with her, whiling knowing the whole time that she was mine. Bobby could just never see what was staring at him right in the face.

I ended it with Rogue because she just wouldn't end things with him. She told me that she liked me and her being a secret. I thought that was a load of crock. I didn't want us to be a secret- I wanted everyone to know that I had the girl, that there was someone out there who cared about me, who understood me; or least, someone that I thought understood me. Apparently, Rogue didn't really.

When I met Magneto, I was drawn to him. Here was someone who understood how I felt about my power, how I didn't want to have to tame it. I always felt that while Professor Xavier was a good man, he didn't understand that fire was free. I felt like controlling the power was how I controlled my life. Fire couldn't be controlled by anyone except me. I was in charge of its destiny, its pathway. Magneto offered me a chance to help fight my fellow mutants, to change our destiny.

I felt bad about leaving with him after what he had done to Rogue, I really did, but I understood in a twisted way why he had done it. The humans had to learn how to coexist with the mutants and that we were not inferior to them. If anything, we're superior. I'll never forget when Magneto told me that I was a god among insects. I realized at that moment that I could change the world. I could make things better for my own kind.

My bitch of a mother abandoned me when she discovered what I was. I had to live on the streets till Storm found me and brought me to Mutant High. I can never forget how the woman who bore me looked at me as though I was an ant that she wanted to squash under her foot. I stopped caring about making peace with humans a long time ago. They're the ones who should be grateful that the mutants are even considering coexisting with them.

I used to try to discuss these issues with Rogue. I tried to make her see my point that the mutants were the ones who held the power within their grasp. Her eyes would always cloud over and she would stare at me, almost in pity. Sometimes she'd call me a fanatic when I would discuss the war that was surely to come. She told me that I wouldn't have to worry about it; that the students of Mutant High wouldn't have to fight in it. She never understood that I wanted to take a stand; that I would have given anything to prove my worth. Magneto gave me a chance to do that.

I hadn't planned to leave the school when I had decided to step outside that jet. I just hated feeling like a little kid, stuck inside when the adults were given a chance to fight. I had the right to do that too- I wasn't a little kid; I had stopped being a kid a long time ago. I was also about to throw something very heavy at Bobby if he even thought about rubbing Rogue's back one more time.

I can't go back to the way things were and to tell you the truth, I don't want to. The only thing that I regret leaving is Rogue. In a way though, leaving was a gift. I was finally able to use my powers when I felt like it. In fact, my power was needed. Mystique started to train me the day we arrived at the Brotherhood's headquarters. She taught me not to look back on what I had been. I was finally being brought to life as Pyro. John was dead; everything that he had once been had to go to the grave- every emotion he had felt, every memory, every person he had cared about.

I learned my lesson well. I was given the task after one month of patrolling the streets of the city to find mutants that sought the same changes that the Brotherhood sought as well. I became skilled at having a concerned face, a warm and gentle hand on their back, while thinking the whole time that there was one more that would help destroy the human race.

Now I'm waiting to find another mutant that can be used to help the cause. Things are heating up in the world. There's even been news that there's a "cure" for the mutants. Fuck that shit. I force myself to stop remembering the past. I've been outside long enough. It's way too cold for me now. I decide to return back to the rest of the Brotherhood.

When I arrived at the headquarters, Magneto was waiting for me at the door. "Are you ready?" he questions with an odd smile coming across his face.

I've never seen the old guy this pleased. "For what?" I ask.

"My young friend, it's time for war."


	2. The War has Begun

War: active hostility or contention; conflict; contest; a struggle. I had been longing to hear that three letter word from Magneto for months. I had been sure that it would bring my salvation; that the deaths that would occur as a result of the war would bring me life. I would be looked at as a savoir to my fellow mutants. Perhaps they would even whisper my name in fear and awe, "Pyro."

However, I was starting to realize that things wouldn't be as easy as I had originally thought. Magneto had explained that my first mission was to stop the mutants who were waiting to receive the cure. He had seen on the news that the cure did in fact exist. It crossed my mind that Rogue might want to get the cure, but I immediately discarded that thought. I knew Rogue. She might hate her power sometimes, but I was sure that she wouldn't betray her own kind. She wouldn't betray me.

"But you betrayed her," a little voice said in my head.

"That was different," I responded. "I did what I had to do. Besides, she refused to come out in the open. She didn't even care enough to tell Bobby what had been going on under his nose for months."

"You followed the man who tried to murder her."

That damn voice. Perhaps some would call it my conscience. I just called it an annoyance that needed to be shut up.

I missed Rogue obviously, but I refused to allow myself to dwell on my thoughts about her. The past was the past and I had to focus on the future, which unfortunately would not be including her. I heard footsteps and saw Magneto enter my room. He looked extremely satisfied.

"We move today Pyro," he proclaimed.

"Where are we going?" His expression was beginning to discomfort me; he usually never had an expression that was anything besides neutral.

"There is a meeting at an old church; mutants of all kinds are gathering there to discuss what our move should be. The cure has upset a strong amount of our kind."

Finally. Other mutants were joining together to put a stop to the humans. I prepared for the journey, making sure that my wrist lighter was securely fastened and I pocketed my Zippo just in case.

The meeting at the church started off as a disappointment. A middle-aged man started talking about how the humans weren't planning to exterminate us, and that people were saying that cure was optional. Please, who would actually believe that shit? Humans would use the cure however they wanted it, on whomever they wished to use it on.

Luckily, Magneto chose that time to stand up on the podium and speak the truth. I stood by his side, making sure that no one would try anything funny. After he gave his speech, some punk tried to start something with him. I surprised him by letting a flame come in his face. We recruited him, two others, and a woman who could detect other mutants' powers and whereabouts. She also moved extremely quickly.

I saw Magneto's face grow excited when she told him of his power. He asked her if she would locate a mutant for him. Obviously, she agreed and as I suspected, he asked her to find out where Mystique was.

God that old man carried such a torch for that blue creature. I liked Mystique though. She was a slave driver in training- she never forgave a mistake, but that made me try even harder in the beginning. She was the one who had presented me with my wrist lighter, so that I could bring the fire out quicker than my old Zippo lighter. I still kept my old lighter though; it was my most valued possession.

Anyway, Magneto and I, along with our new recruits, went to retrieve Mystique from the clutches of the lovely government. Those fuckers. They thought that they could snatch whoever they want as long as it's for their "cause". They claimed that they're protecting the world from us bad, dangerous mutants. Someone should tell them to retrieve the giant stick from their asses.

Magneto was extremely pleased to see what other mutants were being held hostage by the government. There was a mutant named Juggernaut who could knock over anything he pleased; no object could stop him once he got momentum. There was also a guy who could multiply himself however many times he wanted. Of course he was called the "Multiple Man". Predictable, huh?

Of course luck could never be on our side. One bastard tried to shoot the cure at Magneto; Mystique sacrificed herself and jumped in front of him so that she would take it instead. I'll never forget the look on her face when he told her that she wasn't one of us anymore. That was pretty harsh considering she has just saved him. I wondered when that happened, if I would have done the same thing to Rogue. Could I just leave someone who I loved if they ceased to be a mutant like me? I wasn't sure.

Magneto sent me to stop the mutants getting the cure after we tried to rescue Mystique. She would have been better off without us. I was starting to grow agitated while watching the hundreds of mutants waiting in line to get the cure. Could they really be that pathetic, so desperate to be normal? Who the fuck wanted to be normal. Couldn't they see that our mutant powers were a gift, not a curse?

If I saw Rogue in that line I wouldn't know what to do. Obviously, I had been sent to torch the building, but I wasn't sure if I could that if she was there. I knew I had to try to let go of her. I couldn't though. I was really starting to piss myself off with how pathetic I was being. She was just a girl. Someone that I had known and been with sometime ago, but she was in the past. I had to keep reminding myself of that. The past had to stay buried. I had clean myself of all emotions I had for her.

I started checking out the people in line, trying to think of what their story must be. I saw an elderly male who kept murmuring to himself. It looked like he was being possessed. He had probably been abandoned by his wife. Or if she was a mutant, she would've been there with him. I saw a woman, probably in her last 20's that had red hair, red like Kool-Aid red. She wore spikes in her hair, real spikes. I had no clue as to what her mutation could be until she started to blow lightning bolts at a teenager who was trying to look up her skirt. I checked out the person behind her and saw… Rogue. Shit. This was not good.


End file.
